The World Bank has pledged an additional USD 21.6 million to the Maldives for the aid of families that have had their income negatively affected by the economic impact of the global Covid-19 pandemic.

The World Bank released a statement asserting that they would be assisting the Maldivian government in providing income support to the citizens of the Maldives to sustain the economy through the financial downturn caused by Covid-19. The World Bank has previously provided USD 12.8 million in funding to the Maldivian government to supplement the nation's Covid-19 recovery income support project.

The World Bank highlighted that this will allow the Maldivian government the opportunity to continue providing income support allowances to citizens in the challenging months ahead.

The aid being provided to Maldives from the World Bank stems from their International Development Association (IDA). With this, the World Bank will have provided Maldives a total of USD 34.4 million in aid to supplement the governments income support project, including USD 6.4 million in grants and USD 6.4 million in credit aid.

Since the inception of the Covid-19 recovery income support project, the Maldivian government has issued MVR 264.6 million as income support to 17,710 parties by 28 January. The maximum amount issued as income support for an individual is MVR 5,000.

The World Bank has been providing financial aid to support the Maldives' economic recovery efforts following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in April last year. In April, the World Bank issued USD 7.3 million to the Maldives under the Bank's Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Project. In addition to this, the World Bank provided USD 952,000 as Pandemic Emergency funds to the Maldives, along with USD 10 million from under the Bank's Disaster Risk Management Development Policy Financing.

While 10 projects are currently underway in the Maldives under aid from the World Bank, this amounts to USD 148 million in financial aid.